Help us build P.O.W.E.R. in Rochester, New York because the only thing strong enough to confront growing poverty, at a time of massive corporate profits, is grassroots organizing. Your contribution will fund a living wage for a project organizer, who will organize low-wage workers, sustain and grow our awesome women’s group, help fundraise, and develop our workers’ center!

THE NEED

Economic inequality has never been greater. The top 1% benefits from running a race-to-the-bottom economy on the backs of the working poor. Workers of color, women and immigrants in Rochester are particularly vulnerable to poverty wages, wage theft, discrimination, retaliation, dangerous working conditions, temporary and part-time work, and underemployment. We are the 5th poorest metropolitan area in the country, and the 3rd highest in the concentration of poverty. With only 5.8 % of Rochester’s private sector unionized, the vast majority of city residents have no one to turn to, to help them fight for better wages & working conditions.

OUR PROJECT

People Organizing for Worker Empowerment & Respect is a community-based, democratic, worker organization. It is a place where low-wage and unorganized workers join together to defend and expand their rights, build worker power, community, and self-determination.

We link workers’ needs for help with workplace injustices to organizing and participation in the organization. Through advocacy, leadership development, and political education we aim to empower, educate, and mobilize workers toward collective action.

Worker-led campaigns will expose workplace exploitation and win improvements in wages and working conditions. Our long term goal is to maximize workers’ voice, power, and leadership in movements for social and economic justice.

Our Steering Committee is made up of low-wage workers and community and labor organizers, with ties to local workers’ rights and social justice organizations. The Steering Committee has been engaged in strategic planning and laying the groundwork for the workers’ center.

Our Women’s Group is a safe space for women of color to address the ways workplace exploitation uniquely affects them. Their leadership and voice are critical to the success of the workers’ center and the labor movement. The Women’s Group came up with our name - People Organizing for Worker Empowerment & Respect (P.O.W.E.R.)!

OUR HISTORY

Workers’ centers are community-based organizations engaged in services, advocacy, and organizing to support low-wage workers, including people of color, immigrants, women, and historically disadvantaged groups. Fewer than five centers existed in 1992, by 2005 there were over 200 nationwide and in recent years they’ve been established in Upstate New York, including in Syracuse, Ithaca and Buffalo.

This project started as the Worker Justice Group of Occupy Rochester in 2012. Since then, we’ve coordinated two community labor film screenings, advocated for 10 workers facing wage violations and discrimination, presented at a panel discussion with union activists and staff from Syracuse and Ithaca workers’ centers, and organized a seven-part training series for 30 community members. From October 2013 to January 2014, we secured a $3,000 planning grant and engaged in strategic planning with our Steering Committee to take this project to the next level. We submitted a subsequent $10,000 grant proposal and should know the results in May.

OUR GOALS

January-May:Planning & Worker Outreach

The Steering Committee and Women’s Group meet monthly.

We just conducted working conditions surveys with several hundred low-wage workers and are inviting them to participate in the workers’ center.

We’ve built partnerships with youth, neighborhood, faith, and immigrant/ refugee organizations interested in advocating on issues of worker justice.

May-August:Worker Forums

With a coalition of our partner community organizations, we will host a series of forums where workers can build community and share their experiences and organizing ideas.

August-September: Worker Summit

The collective wisdom from the Forums will culminate at a Summit where workers actively involved in the Forums will be invited for strategic discussions and begin to create a working peoples' community agenda.

Forum and Summit participants will be invited to attend trainings to help them in recruiting, leading, and organizing their co-workers and communities and encouraged to take on organizational leadership roles.

OUR ASK

We have an ambitious agenda and as an all-volunteer group, we are fundraising to hire a part-time organizer at a living wage, to provide support and continuity to our Steering Committee, Women’s Group and upcoming activities.

Budget: $13,760.00 to hire one organizer at $20.00 per hour, 20 hours per week, for 8 months. This Indiegogo campaign is one of three projected funding sources, the other is a foundation grant and small member contributions. Our total projected expenses are $18,280 (which includes, wages, taxes, office use, printing, copying, food, travel and any cost overruns).

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